Tropes in this anime include;

Adults Are Useless: The visitation officer is friendly with Hana's fosters instead of being strictly there on business, which allows them to easily cover up their abuse of Hana. Hana doesn't bother trying to tell him what's really going on because of this, which will only result in more abuse after he doesn't do anything.

Aerith and Bob: Michiko, Hiroshi — Maria, Pedro... Also, Hatchin's actual name is "Hana", which can be both Japanese and Western. This is subverted due to Diamandra's source of inspiration, Brazil, having the highest concentration of Japanese people in a single country besides Japan, of course.

All Just a Dream: It turns out that the scene where Hatchin fights back against her abusive foster siblings is this.

Artistic License – Religion: Hana's foster father, Pedro, seems to be a Catholic priest and he has a wife and children. In real life, Catholic priests can't marry or have children for many theological and canonical reasons.note Technically, Catholic priests can be married if they are Byzantine Rite (unlikely here, since Pedro wears Latin-Rite robes and the series takes place in Latin America, not Eastern Europe) or "grandfathered in" through converting from another denomination that ordains married men, like Anglicanism. Given that the Anglican Church is featured prominently in anime, this could be the case.

Berserk Button: Don't call Atsuko "Jambo" if you don't want to get hurt.

Beware the Nice Ones: Hatchin has suffered her foster family's abuse for a fair chunk of her life. It took her face being nearly ironed and then being literally kicked out of the house by Maria for her to snap and pummel the crap out of her.

Bittersweet Ending: The series ends with Hiroshi running off with another woman, and the father of Hatchin's baby abandoning them. However, Hatchin doesn't seem too bothered about it. At least at the end, Michiko is either released from prison or escapes again, and reunites with Hatchin.

Boobs of Steel: Michiko's well-endowed, and takes (and gives) punches with the best of them. Other characters tend to be armed with guns.

The cooking of omelettes. Hatchin cooks omelettes for her foster family at the beginning, then cooks for her baby at the end.

In the first episode, Hatchin briefly runs away from home into the middle of nowhere and imagines crossing paths with a truck, whose driver is her father come to rescue her and whisk her away. In the last episode, Hatchin decides to meet Michiko in the middle of nowhere, driving to her destination with a truck, wanting to travel with her surrogate mother again.

Circus Episode: There is a two-parter episode where a circus girl mistakes Hatchin for a boy and falls for her. Even after Hatchin reveals her gender, they become friends and she stays with Rita. In the second episode, it turns out the circus was really smuggling children and selling them as slaves. Luckily Michiko comes along and saves Hatchin. Afterwards, Rita and Hatchin part ways.

Conspicuous CG: Surprisingly not used for the cars. Moving backgrounds on the other hand...

Cooldown Hug: Michiko does this to Hatchin after the latter goes through a painful, first heartbreak.

Crapsack World: Diamandra is an incredibly unforgivable country. Most people tend to live in squalor or rely on crime and violence to make ends meet, children are hurt and taken advantage of like it's normal, and the average citizen tends to be a Jerkass, or much, much worse. Sometimes it feels like Michiko and Hatchin's journey is more of a 22 episode lesson in Humans Are Bastards. It says something about how awful everything is when Michiko's completely incompetent and borderline abusive attempts to be a mother for Hatchin are heartwarming by comparison to everything else that happens.

Michiko and Hatchin spends the entire series looking for Hiroshi. After they finally find him, he claims that he wants to be a part of Hatchin's life. It's revealed that sometime after Hiroshi and Hatchin left together, he ran off with another woman.

Free-Range Children: Hatchin goes off by herself and is left alone by Michiko constantly. The same can be said for all the other children who are encountered, as they are mainly seen without adults. Played with in that they rarely do this for enjoyment, but rather out of necessity.

Groin Attack: Used rather liberally by Michiko whenever male law officials are taking her on (i.e. pretty much every officer in the show who's not Atsuko). She only tends to use it as a pragmatic defense tactic, which it is, rather than just to be malicious.

Horrible Judge of Character: Despite several clues that Hiroshi is not the thoughtful and good person she thinks he is, Michiko still believes he's still in love with her. Most of the other characters see right through him. Satoshi is also guilty of this concerning Hiroshi. Even Hatchin, who's never met Hiroshi up to that point, is able to get his personality better than his former best friend.

Idiot Hero: Michiko, sort of. She isn't the brightest bulb in the box, but she makes up for it with lots of bravado and street smarts.

Reasonable Authority Figure: Michiko, a statuesque woman who works at the circus, not the title character, treats the kids who wind up working for her relatively well and doesn't take any crap from a crooked journalist who wants to make her look bad in order to get a scoop. This is subverted when it's revealed that she's selling the kids who aren't useful.

"Shaggy Dog" Story: The whole Hiroshi search has a very anti-climatic end, especially when you consider that this plot drives the entire anime. Michiko's whole goal was to find Hiroshi again and give him his daughter, and since she proclaims her love for him for a good part of the series, possibly also get her Happy Ending by meeting him again. When the three of them meet, Michiko has experienced enough to know that her sole mission was to simply deliver Hatchin to her father. Hatchin, who wasn't exactly excited about meeting the guy in the first place, is abandoned by him again after a few months, when he runs away with another woman (Genre Savvy viewers would've seen this one coming as soon as the clues that Hiroshi was far from an upstanding guy started coming up). Still, from a certain point of view, it was all worth it, as the bond and friendship between the two girls is also the main theme of the series, and is reinforced when they meet after the Time Skip at the end.

Shorter Means Smarter: Hatchin is considerably more rational and observant than the hot-headed, impulsive Michiko.

Shout-Out: The library from episode 15 is full of copies of the Vincent Law book from Ergo Proxy, another Manglobe production.

Sick Episode: Episode 12. Michiko collapses while driving her scooter, and then tries to shrug off her fever by claiming she just has a very "hot body". The rest of the episode is about Hatchin taking care of her.

Tomboy and Girly Girl: Michiko and Hatchin switch between these at times, making the line blurred. Michiko dresses in a extremely bold manner and often wears a lot of jewelry (and is, after all, the one who is looking for the man she loves, lending her a somewhat romantic outlook). However, she is abrasive and borderline violent. In contrast, perceptive and quiet Hatchin could be mistaken for a boy in appearance.

Tranquillizer Dart: Subverted. Michiko appears to be very resilient when hit by a dart from a tranquilizer gun. Twice.

Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Michiko is the adult and is prone to violence, tantrums, and getting into fights, Hatchin is more calm, takes care of the former when she's drunk and/or sick, and tries to use peaceful negotiations.

Several characters, but most importantly Jair, the old man in episode 14 who attempted to assassinate Michiko. He is never mentioned again even though he last seen taking Michiko to her destination after calling for a truce.

Hiroshi, who doesn't seem so important in the end, although he was the main plot point and thus the reason why Michiko and Hatchin do all the stuff in the series in the first place. He doesn't seem to give a shit about Hatchin. After they leave together, Hatchin reveals that at some point, he ran off with another woman.note This is Truth in Television as some deadbeat dads act exactly like Hiroshi.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy